Andrea Lash

Expository Writing

4/19/99

Critical Review

Joan Didion: A Critical Review

Didion, Joan. The White Album. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1979.

(223 pages priced at $9.95)

Didion’s essays in The White Album left me feeling unsatisfied. The subjects Didion touched on were historical and somewhat political. Essays also delt with observations of nature in which Didion showed her strength in recalling details of landscaping and famous individuals she had known. Didion also made references to musicians of her era, including Creedence Clearwater Revival, Janis Joplin, and the Doors.

The purpose behind Didion’s work has me puzzled. Reading her essays gave me a sense that she felt victimized by society. Her style gave me the impression that she felt as though she was on the outside looking in. Didion tried to view things from her perspective, which to me appeared unbalanced by her emotions and her political standpoint.

In comparison to the piece by Brian Doyle that we read in class, Didion resembles Doyle in regards to the manner in which she loses herself in her writing. Doyle gets caught up in the action in ‘Two on Two’ like Didion gets caught up in the majority of her essays. I re-read essays and still noticed how there were no surprises in her writing. Granted, she gets personal to a certain degree, but then she shifts to another avenue.

Reading Didion’s essay’s also gave me the sensation that she is somewhat self-absorbed. Didion writes or brags about her knowledge of people and places as well as her own life. Somehow she strikes me as being depressed and unsatisfied with her own life. The photograph on the back cover of the book shows her as a thin and unhappy woman. Although I don’t personally know Joan Didion, her essay ‘The Islands’ backs up me theory of her unhappiness. Didion makes references to her marriage that suggests rocky moments. "I avoid his eyes" and "He refrains from noticing when I am staring at nothing." (133 and 135).

Although I don’t particularly find Didion’s essays fascinating, I will recognize her strength in reporting details of the landscaping around her. She writes about earthquakes, water, flowers, and gardens with a well designed image attached to her observations. This allows the reader an inside look into the scenery surrounding Didion’s visual perspective. This also enables the reader to get a better description of what is transpiring within the context of the essay.

In short, I felt that Didion’s essays lack surprise. While reading them, I remembered wondering what the point was supposed to signify. Perhaps that is a mystery that is intended by Didion. The essays didn’t interest me, but perhaps it is due to the fact that I do not possess a vast knowledge of the sixties. Also, I don’t consider myself a feminist, which may result in the differences in style and opinion between myself and Didion.